The device is reportedly powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 2 and includes a camera. (Source: Engadget)

The device will use the same OS code base used by the Zune HD and Windows Mobile 7 operating systems. (Source: Engadget)

Details on the upcoming portable e-book reader/journal device leak

It
may be a battle of the tablets when two of the electronics industry's
biggest stars -- Microsoft and Apple -- go head to head with
competing tablet designs later this year. According
toEngadget,whose
sources were some of the first to leak details on
Microsoft's upcoming
Courier tablet, Microsoft will release the Courier in Q3 or Q4 of
this year.

Apple's iPad certainly turned some heads when it
was previewed
in January, though not all of the attention it received was
positive. Despite curiously selecting a name that was once
used in a Mad TV parody skit about feminine hygiene
products, the device is sure to draw some early customers, if nothing
else, when it launches to Wi-Fi and 3G forms in April (April 3 for
the Wi-Fi version).

Long time Apple rival Microsoft has been
working on its own tablet for nearly as long as the Cupertino
corporation. In September 2009, even as Apple's designs
remained secret and unknown, pictures and details about Microsoft's
Courier dual-screen tablet device first
aired.

Since, Apple has taken the reins with its big
January iPad announcement, and Microsoft has been curiously quiet.
However, Engadget's
source has leaked a lot of new information about the upcoming
tablet.

According to the source, the Courier will weigh just
over a pound (similar to the iPad, which weighs 1.6 lb) and will
function as a "digital journal"-cum-eBook reader. It
will be under and inch thick and have a closed size about as big as a
5x7 inch picture. Its two screens will reportedly be powered by
NVIDIA's Tegra 2, a ultra-low-voltage Cortex A9 ARM processor.

The
tablet will run on the same base OS that Windows
Mobile 7 and the Zune HD OS are built on, Windows CE 6.
The device will center around writing and drawing, with the ability
to post everything you write to a personal website with flexible
sharing levels. Like the iPad, the Courier will have a 3.5 mm
headphone jack, but it one-ups its fruity competitor, offering a
built-in camera as well.

Engadget has
new HD videos of the device in action, but the content is mostly the
sames as the preview videos that aired in September. The focus
on journal activities is reiterated in them.

Ultimately, the
iPad and the Courier are both very alike and very different.
Both share the same challenges -- a public that for years has been
lukewarm to tablet devices and the challenge of selling an eye
strain-inducing LCD device as an eBook reader. At the same
time, both devices may be able to carve out a niche for themselves by
their different perks in addition to being an eBook reader. In
Apple's case it's the iPad's app library, which includes the ability
to run higher resolution apps. In Microsoft's case it's the
journal functionality of the device, which seems well suited for the
blog-loving busy current internet population.

It should be
interesting to see who comes out on top when the pair go head to head
sometime late this year or early next year.